


if lies were cats you’d be a litter

by stirring_tea_with_a_shovel



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical The Spiral Content (The Magnus Archives), Canon-Typical Worms (The Magnus Archives), Gen, Gertrude is not mentioned by name but her body does come up, He/Him and It/Its Pronouns for Michael | The Distortion (The Magnus Archives), Michael POV of part of MAG 26: A Distortion, honestly more of a character study for michael than anything else, tags to update if i decide to put another part on this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29131797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stirring_tea_with_a_shovel/pseuds/stirring_tea_with_a_shovel
Summary: Michael goes over some old things, and finds some new ones.OR a bit of MAG 26: A Distortion told from Michael’s perspective.
Relationships: Gertrude Robinson & Michael Shelley, Sasha James & Michael Shelley, Sasha James & Michael | The Distortion
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	if lies were cats you’d be a litter

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a couple months ago, and I figured I might as well post it. This is the first time in quite a long time that I’m posting fic online, so critique is always welcome!!
> 
> title is from i can’t decide by the scissor sisters!!
> 
> chapter title is from the mind electric by miracle musical!!

Michael, or the thing that used to be Michael( _the thing that was Michael, the thing that Michael used to be, the thing that Michael is, the thing that Michael once wa-_ ) looked over the situation in which the new Archivist has unknowingly caught himself in and lets out a chuckle that would give anyone a headache if they were near enough to hear. There were also some other emotions that were felt that it did not care to explore within its corridors. They were there, but the Distortion preferred to be surprised.

Surprises are better.

It opens a door into the tunnels. It watches, but not like the Eye Watches. It watches because it simply wants to, not because it feels it has to. It watches as a worm slithers into the doorway. It watches as the worm implodes as the door slams shut, cutting it off from its many, many anchors. It is a crumb of the feast to come. A taste of the revelry that could be.

The Distortion next opens into the room where _she_ lays, dead and long gone by this point. He wishes he could have killed her himself, but the fact that she is dead is not something he truly cared enough to change. Bringing her back would only bring back a purpose, a concept that it has worked hard to shrug off since the failed Great Twisting. To have a purpose when you are the literal personification of madness and insanity, and by proxy not having a purpose, does not bode well for existence. 

Michael was( _is, never was, will be, has alwa-_ ) an anchor. Before the assistant came into its hallways, it never had an anchor, but now… not so much. An anchor to manhood that it so badly wants to rid itself of. He never did learn how the old crone managed to figure out how to stop his becoming. It's not like she ever had an anchor for herself.

For reasons unknown to even the Spiral, Michael Shelley is still in its corridors ( _has never been in, has been in since the birth of the Spiral, will nev-_ ), or at least remnants of what used to be Michael. The Distortion is sometimes not sure where one begins and one ends. It is not sure if they like not knowing better than knowing. 

He acts as an anchor, his human wants and motivations and hell, even quirks, manifest in the Distortion in strange ways. And while the Spiral can take advantage of the man's human looking form, the cons outweigh the pros at times. 

That being said, The Distortion often finds itself playing with Michael Shelley's hair, twirling it in it's overly long metaphysical-but-sometimes-physical fingers. It was very curly and good to play with even before Michael Became Michael. Plus, it really drives some people insane when the person they're talking to _won't stop fidgeting_. Can you really blame it? 

Michael( _the thing that Michael once was, the thing Michael is, the thing that Michael ne-_ ) makes the Distortion lonely. Not Lonely, just plain, old, disgusting human loneliness. It sees how its prey sometimes manages to get out with an anchor, and that anchor is usually a person. 

Somehow, despite the power that can come with insanity and madness and fully Becoming, Michael Shelley, or the bits of him that are still here even though the majority of him is gone, wants a connection. An anchor. Despite the fact, or maybe because of the fact, that he knows that he himself is an unwanted anchor. He refuses to let himself fully Become, or be eaten.

Michael Shelley has a soft spot for humans. This is sometimes unfortunate, because when the Distortion is hungry, starving even, Michael will take his time. Both parts of what is now Michael think that the other is just toying with the food, but some of each other has seeped into each other like mold into a wall, whether or not either party wants to admit it. Neither part of the being wants to put much thought into it. 

That's led Michael here, to the coffee shop. He is not sure when he got here, but that is okay. It wouldn't be the first time. People come and go, sometimes The Distortion is tempted to mess with their minds as they walk by. 

If one man's coffee cup is suddenly ice cold when it is scalding hot the moment before, no one suspects the bright man in the window with the nice smile. If the barista messes up a drink and then spills it for the second time today, she certainly doesn’t blame the person who’s hands move too fast to have a clear shape. 

A woman is watching it happen- no, she's Watching _him_. 

It looks over, and outside of the window, across the street, is a woman. It gives a little wave that it hopes is only just human. She just looks even more scared than before. Good. This woman has the scent of a couple different entities trailing behind her, but the strongest is the Eye. Michael takes note of this, and decides to worry about it later.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Kudos and comments are appreciated!! 
> 
> Also I’m not sure if I wanna add another part to this or not :// i have more written but idk if I like it.


End file.
